Coast to Poet Scotland

Day 58/Scotland 35

Stay: Alloway-Robert Burns Cottage carpark free N55.4323 W4.6350

Visited: Greenock then coast road to Alloway, Robert Burns Museum (National Trust Nonmembers £10.50pp)

We began the day with a little explore of Greenock. 

Custom house.

Building named after engineer James Watt.

Town hall.

Statue about industries in the town.

WWII memorial.

We then stopped at Battery Point near Gourock for a wee bite of breakfast. We continued following the coast as much as we could and stopped just after Largs at a harbour. 

Largs has a strong Viking heritage.

We walked along the coastal path and had a closer look at the ‘pencil’ monument for the battle between the Scots and the Vikings.

 Further south we ventured through Ardrossan and the Ayr, which was a very popular beach resort town. 

Too busy for us, so we continued on to our destination for today, Alloway. A pretty small village where the famous poet, Robert Burns was born in 1759. Although he died at 37, he is celebrated worldwide. Every New Year’s Eve we sing one of his songs, ‘Auld Lang Syne’. 

We started our visit having a look at the cottage where he was born.

 We then went for a walk through the village which had many references to the inspirations to some of his works. 

Statue donated after Burns nominated most influential Scot ever. It depicts his lyrics inspired by his dislike of a wild animal being detained in chains.

The witches in the Auld Kirk.

The field mouse he wrote about after disturbing one in the field he was ploughing.

A memorial to Burns.



The Auld Brig inspired his story about Tam o’Shanter

Eventually we made it to the museum where we learnt about the man himself and his works.

 It appears he had a very interesting life, albeit short to our standards. He managed to get married and father 9 legitimate children as well as 4 illegitimate from as many other women. He also had a love of animals and their plight, along as a dislike to slavery. It was an interesting afternoon. We were told that we could stay the night in the carpark, so rather than rushing off, we went to enjoy a meal at the restaurant.